annotate admin/notes/unicode @ 92006:850ec4b2f0bc

Split off from README.unicode
author Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>
date Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:00:22 +0000
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children cac099ec0724
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92006
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1 -*-mode: text; coding: latin-1;-*-
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2
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3 Copyright (C) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
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4 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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5 See the end of the file for license conditions.
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6
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7 Problems, fixmes and other unicode-related issues
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8 -------------------------------------------------------------
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9
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10 Notes by fx to record various things of variable importance. handa
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11 needs to check them -- don't take too seriously, especially with
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12 regard to completeness.
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13
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14 * SINGLE_BYTE_CHAR_P returns true for Latin-1 characters, which has
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15 undesirable effects. E.g.:
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16 (multibyte-string-p (let ((s "x")) (aset s 0 ?£) s)) => nil
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17 (multibyte-string-p (concat [?£])) => nil
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18 (text-char-description ?£) => "M-#"
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19
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20 These examples are all fixed by the change of 2002-10-14, but
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21 there still exist questionable SINGLE_BYTE_CHAR_P in the
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22 code (keymap.c and print.c).
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23
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24 * Rationalize character syntax and its relationship to the Unicode
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25 database. (Applies mainly to symbol an punctuation syntax.)
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26
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27 * Fontset handling and customization needs work. We want to relate
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28 fonts to scripts, probably based on the Unicode blocks. The
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29 presence of small-repertoire 10646-encoded fonts in XFree 4 is a
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30 pain, not currently worked round.
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31
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32 With the change on 2002-07-26, multiple fonts can be
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33 specified in a fontset for a specific range of characters.
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34 Each range can also be specified by script. Before using
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35 ISO10646 fonts, Emacs checks their repertories to avoid such
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36 fonts that don't have a glyph for a specific character.
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37
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38 fx has worked on fontset customization, but was stymied by
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39 basic problems with the way the default face is dealt with
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40 (and something else, I think). This needs revisiting.
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41
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42 * Work is also needed on charset and coding system priorities.
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43
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44 * The relevant bits of latin1-disp.el need porting (and probably
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45 re-naming/updating). See also cyril-util.el.
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46
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47 * Quail files need more work now the encoding is largely irrelevant.
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48
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49 * What to do with the old coding categories stuff?
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50
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51 * The preferred-coding-system property of charsets should probably be
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52 junked unless it can be made more useful now.
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53
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54 * find-multibyte-characters needs looking at.
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55
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56 * Implement Korean cp949/UHC, BIG5-HKSCS and any other important missing
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57 charsets.
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58
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59 * Lazy-load tables for unify-charset somehow?
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60
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61 Actually, Emacs clears out all charset maps and unify-map just
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62 before dumping, and they are loaded again on demand by the
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63 dumped emacs. But, those maps (char tables) generated while
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64 temacs is running can't be removed from the dumped emacs.
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65
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66 * Translation tables for {en,de}code currently aren't supported.
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67
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68 This should be fixed by the changes of 2002-10-14.
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69
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70 * Defining CCL coding systems currently doesn't work.
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71
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72 This should be fixed by the changes of 2003-01-30.
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73
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74 * iso-2022 charsets get unified on i/o.
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75
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76 With the change on 2003-01-06, decoding routines put `charset'
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77 property to decoded text, and iso-2022 encoder pay attention
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78 to it. Thus, for instance, reading and writing by
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79 iso-2022-7bit preserve the original designation sequences.
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80 The property name `preferred-charset' may be better?
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81
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82 We may have to utilize this property to decide a font.
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83
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84 * Revisit locale processing: look at treating the language and
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85 charset parts separately. (Language should affect things like
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86 spelling and calendar, but that's not a Unicode issue.)
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87
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88 * Handle Unicode combining characters usefully, e.g. diacritics, and
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89 handle more scripts specifically (à la Devanagari). There are
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90 issues with canonicalization.
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91
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92 * Bidi is a separate issue with no support currently.
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93
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94 * We need tabular input methods, e.g. for maths symbols. (Not
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95 specific to Unicode.)
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96
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97 * Need multibyte text in menus, e.g. for the above. (Not specific to
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98 Unicode -- see Emacs etc/TODO, but now mostly works with gtk.)
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99
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100 * There's currently no support for Unicode normalization.
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101
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102 * Populate char-width-table correctly for Unicode characters and
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103 worry about what happens when double-width charsets covering
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104 non-CJK characters are unified.
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105
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106 * Emacs 20/21 .elc files are currently not loadable. It may or may
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107 not be possible to do this properly.
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108
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109 With the change on 2002-07-24, elc files generated by Emacs
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110 20.3 and later are correctly loaded (including those
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111 containing multibyte characters and compressed). But, elc
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112 files generated by 20.2 and the primer are still not loadable.
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113 Is it really worth working on it?
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114
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115 * Rmail won't work with non-ASCII text. Encoding issues for Babyl
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116 files need sorting out, but rms says Babyl will go before this is
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117 released.
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118
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119 * Gnus still needs some attention, and we need to get changes
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120 accepted by Gnus maintainers...
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121
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122 * There are type errors lurking, e.g. in
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123 Fcheck_coding_systems_region. Define ENABLE_CHECKING to find them.
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124
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125 * You can grep the code for lots of fixmes.
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126
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127 * Old auto-save files, and similar files, such as Gnus drafts,
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128 containing non-ASCII characters probably won't be re-read correctly.
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129
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130
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131 This file is part of GNU Emacs.
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132
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133 GNU Emacs is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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134 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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135 the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option)
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136 any later version.
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137
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138 GNU Emacs is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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139 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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140 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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141 GNU General Public License for more details.
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142
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143 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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144 along with GNU Emacs; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the
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145 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
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146 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.